%0 Journal Article %A ZHANG Lu %A HAO Bi-Tai %A QI Li-Xue %A LI Yan-Long %A XU Hui-Min %A YANG Li-Na %A BAOYIN Taogetao %T Dynamic responses of aboveground biomass and soil organic matter content to grassland restoration %D 2018 %R 10.17521/cjpe.2017.0046 %J Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology %P 317-326 %V 42 %N 3 %X

Aims Based on a long-term observation experiment set up in 1983, which was designed to test how different restoration measures would affect the aboveground biomass and soil organic matter content in a degraded Leymus chinensis steppe in Nei Mongol, under the enclosure protection from interference. Our restoration measures included shallow plowing, harrowing and natural restoration.

Methods This experiment used the quadrat method (five replicates) to survey the aboveground biomass and the potassium dichromate oxidation volumetric method to analyze soil organic matter content.

Important findings Results showed that the changes of aboveground biomass in the early period (1983-1991) were significantly higher under shallow plowing treatment than under natural restoration, while those under the harrowing treatment were not significantly different from those under the rest two treatments. In the middle period (1991-2006), there the three treatments had no significant different changes of aboveground biomass. In the late period (2006-2014), the changes of aboveground biomass were in the order of natural restoration > harrowing > shallow plowing, while the difference was significant between natural restoration and shallow plowing. The changes of soil organic matter content in the 0-10 cm soil layer in the early period was significantly different under different treatments and was in the order of shallow plowing > harrowing > natural restoration. Compared to the initial value (1983), natural restoration, harrowing, and shallow plowing treatments increased soil organic matter content by 21%, 45%, and 37% respectively. In middle and late period, natural restoration increased soil organic matter content significantly more than shallow plowing did, while harrowing treatment result was between the two treatment results and was not significantly different from natural restoration and shallow plowing. Natural restoration, harrowing, shallow plowing increased soil organic matter content by 61%, 46%, and 57% respectively in the middle period and by 67%, 51%, 62% in the later period. The changes of soil organic matter content in the 10-30 cm soil layer in the early period was significantly different under different treatments and was in the order of shallow plowing > natural restoration > harrowing. In middle and late periods, there was no significant difference among treatments. In summary, different improvement measures should be chosen according to the objectives of recovery. On a short time scale, shallow plowing is beneficial to the rapid restoration of productivity and soil organic carbon content in the degraded Leymus chinensis steppe, while the benefit of natural restoration and harrowing is more obvious on a longer time scale.

%U https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2017.0046